1,101 Comments

This team – which calling it a team is a mistake has lost its way and will not find its way into the playoffs. What is worse is the give it up attitude that is displayed on the ice. As a fan all you want is for your team, your guys to compete, show they’re inspired, make an effort. Trading malcontents and guys who are not producing must be the next step. Trade for draft choices. As we’ve seen this can get a team competing a lot more quickly than most have ever believed due to the quality of the younger guys these days.

Any chance the Antichambre could do a show in English?
I tune in a lot and pick up bits and pieces, but I would really love if the show could reach out to the Anlglophile fans a do a show en anglais, por favor.

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“I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out”

Hi Guys… Hab=ven’t posted in a while. I have noticed something since the beginning of the year. PK is not playing with the same passion we are used to seeing him play with. He seems soft on some plays where you know he could win the battle. I don’t know what is happening but I hope it gets fixed soon cause we need him. That thing with Darche, I get it and yes Darche is a 4th liner but sometimes leaders need to say what is wrong when something doesn’t go right. Anyways, reat win for the Habs. The next 2 will be tough.

PK Subban has more pure talent than anybody presently on the Montreal Canadiens …He is poetry on the ice …glitches here and there, but the kid is what ?, 21 years old ? …for a defenceman, He is already almost a master on the ice
…just watch Him in another year or 2, He will be wowing Fans not only of the Montreal Canadiens, but He and Carey will be the ‘face’ of the Montreal Canadiens around the NHL
…absolutely ridiculous hearing so-called Habs’ Fans talking about trading this gem We have waited so long to have
…absolutely ridiculous

HIS, the major wrench in the cogs that is the Montreal Canadiens is this.
The team turned out to be a political pawn, which castrates the meaning of being a Hab as far as I’m concerned.
The writing is on the wall.

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Being negative has its advantages.
You’re never disappointed.

Tired, cold/flu, distracted, stubbed toe, whatever. Stuff happens and no matter how much these guys get paid they’re not going to be 100% all the time. Blaming the coach is a cop out. Lambasting a vet for dressing down a rookie for making mistakes (and he made a few half ass plays tonight) is just silly.

Someone explain to me how these Antichambre people are considered ‘experts’? Just watched the moderator claim:

Why would you put Brian Gionta in hte shootout tonight if he was Minus 3? That doesn’t make sense?

… This coming AFTER the fact that Gionta just won us the game. Oh, and not to mention that plus/minus measures when your on the ice both offensively and defensively….suggesting that Gionta’s defensive coverage was bad all game. So let me ask you all… how does a -3 affect your ability to score 1 on 1 with the goalie?

These guys need to take a hike. Seriously. They fill up the ariwaves with negativity so much that they convince themselves that their ‘suspicions’ of the team are true. Use facts that are relevant and contribute PROPERLY!

They make their money off of being negative. Ever notice how many comments are in game-day threads and post-game discussions on this site? The people who care enough to read blogs, and watch post-game shows, as far as Habs fans go, anyways, thrive off of bitching and moaning.

The way the teams are so close in the standings I will take any kind of win, and have no complaints about them. We came back tonight after being down by 2 goals, and with the trouble we have scoring I did not have high hopes.

Well then, if you’ve finally had enough, Mr. Molson will have to fire coach Martin. He might not be reading this though as I heard he was giving a lecture at my old alma mater Simon Fraser University, or as we used to call it….SFU!

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Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.
— Augustine of Hippo

This is what I wanted to see. Crappy 1st period, down 2 goals, no hope, and then it’s a Disney movie – happy ending.
They battled, and found a way to win, and in the process it was a highly entertaining game.

Bad news: Boston has won ten in a row … WOW. And they basically humiliated and crushed the Sabres tonight in Buffalo’s “statement game”. The statement was something like, “We’ll stand up to you … after a week … and we’ll get our asses handed to us … and we’ll choke and lose the game too … we’re the Sabres.”

Good news: Ten in a row? They just peaked. Jumped the shark. It’s all over for them. And one of these days someone is going to play Larry Robinson to Lucik’s Dave “Hammer” Schultz … and we will get to watch it.

I live in Calgary and it’s terrible, they think the Sutters are god’s gift to hockey and many don’t understand that they need to give their assets up for some sort of future, before their value diminishes. As it is now, the only future they have is Giordano, who’s mediocre right now, Horak, who doesn’t have a great upside and might be a flash in the pan, and the guy they drafted in the off season, Bartchi or something.

Good comeback win that shows spirit and stick-with-it-ness, regardless of our lackluster first period and a half.

Gomer should never have been out on the PP, the way he’s been playing, and we were better without him in the 3rd. He seems to be going back to his old tricks, now that he’s back at centre – trick backhand passes to nobody, while nobody’s looking or ready, not moving the puck quickly enough.. etc etc.

Other than that, our best players came out to play and win it for the team, which is what we need. I liked seeing Darche jawing on the bench, possibly at PK, for screwing up. Good to see passion.

That’s exactly the WRONG way to look at it. The teams they need to catch are 4 or 5 games over .500 now, but it won’t stay that way. The top 5 will have themselves solidly in the playoffs in another 40 or 50 days, and if you’re not in one of those spots, it’ll be a fight to make it for the rest of the season. Best get those wins now.

There are plenty of vulnerable teams in the top eight who could go on a long losing streak. Toronto have no business being in their position with that roster. They have to “regress to the mean” at some point. Especially Kessel. Buffalo just took a demoralizing beating and could falter. Boston, I dunno, I just have a feeling they will come apart at some point; it’s just a hunch. Then there’s Washington and Florida too … hmmm, basically, I think most of the top eight have a lot of crash and burn potential.

Though statistically, it doesn’t often happen that the playoff spots move much after November.

So why is it this team can’t play 60 minutes. Yes, there’s ebb and flow in every match, but how often have we seen the Canadiens hold the upper hand in a period and then come out flat in the next.
I’m not referring to tonight’s game in particular, of course, but just wondering, in general, why it happens so often. How much influence does a coach have on a game’s outcome with adjustment(s) made during intermissions? And what are those adjustments — even more line combinations, or certain players getting less ice time?
I ask these questions because there’s a test coming up tomorrow on The System.
Essay questions. Arrgh.

Ya, so Darche chastised PK at the bench after PK dumped the puck instead of passing to him. I wondered what PK was doing in that sequence. Anyway, in a nut shell, the panel basically said it’s not a 4th line players’ role to do that but because there is no “coaching” to say the least, on Martin’s part, then you get situations like we got tonight. Ahhhhh, and the Martin spoiling of rookies continues. Why oh why!?

I don’t think that he’s spoiling anyone, really. PK played well last year, but he can tend toward being selfish with the puck and trying to do everything himself. Sophomore years are difficult because people have figured you out a bit more, and you’ve also believed the hype about yourself.
He’ll be fine, and JM hasn’t been overly hard on him.

I’m not one of those Martin bash’er, really, I’m not, but it is well documented that he has issues with communication with the players. And Carbo got fired exactly for that reason. It’s a head scratcher.

Edit: No offence intended but please provide the links to credible sources as I have been unable to find them in many internet searches. I’ve asked this of others in the past and have received no credible articles, interviews or direct quotes, only it seems second and third hand info or opinions….thnaks.

He communicates with the players very well! What do you think he’s doing with that notepad? He’s writing notes to the players, obv:

“Dear PK: You make some really creative plays. I don’t like it. No PP for PK!”

“Dear Mathieu: You never called after the other night. Are things awkward between us now? I promise to bump your power-play time as soon as that red-headed witch from TSN looks the other way.”

“Dear Eric Cole: Since you’ve played so well and it’s your first game back in Carolina, I’m going to put you on the top line, the first PP unit, and use you in the shootout … NOT! Hahaha, lolz, sit down, Cole.”

“Dear Alexei Emelin: I don’t like you. At all. You smell.”

“Dear Raphael Diaz: You are my favourite defenceman, just like you were my favourite Ninja Turtle. Never change.”

How could you say he’s a bad communicator? You’re a basher no matter what you say!

Well it’s been said that 7/8 teams in playoff spots by Nov. 24 will stay up there until April. Hoping the Habs grab that spot.
Still lots of time for the Florida Fall and Toronto Tail-spin. Also hoping Markov is still capable of doing what we know him to be capable of. Almost forgot about Ryan White, but not sure if he was a flash in the pan but I hope he still has that high energy he brought last year, after all Nokalienen hasn’t been bad.

Mathematically it doesn’t look great for them. Tied with Devils and Rangers for the last spot, but NYR have FOUR games in hand, and the Devils have two. I know, here we are in November talking about games in hand, but it’s significant.

Worst case scenario is the Toronto Finish, i.e., 9th/10th … but that’s how it looks right now.

The goal should be trying to catch Boston for the Division title and the automatic berth. Somehow they are only three points behind them, even though Boston is 13-7 and Montreal are essentially 10-12 … again, Boston has two games in hand, but still …

I’ll be front and center and on TV for the Forida fall unfortunately… they better damn well play like they mean it here in Florida, it’s basically a home game for the habs down here. and I’ll be pissed if they play Budaj in any of the two games here in Florida I’m at.

I think Florida are for real. It’ll be tough to beat them out of a playoff spot. Toronto, on the other hand, could have issues. They have a lot of injuries, and who knows how long it will take Reimer to get back his form when he starts playing again? I don’t think much of Gustavsson although he was good against Tampa last night, and their third guy, Scrivens, should have ups and downs because of his complete inexperience. The Habs need to put together a sustained winning streak, but I can’t see that happening until Markov comes back. Until then, we just have to hang in there.

The team played better after Gomez was pulled. This is not a co-incidence. Sorry, the time for trying to save face is over, the Gomez deal was a mistake, lets move on. The more JM plays him, the less we see of Eller. This game showed Eller is ready for a bigger role with the team and that Gomez is washed-up. Forget Hamilton, he should retire.

Ted “Gimme One More Chance” Nolan
Randy “I Know More Than the Other Randy” Ladouceur
Claude “I Can Speak French” Jodoin
Red “Keep Your Stick On the Ice” Green (who’s willing to change his name to Rouge “Keep Your Stick On the Ice” Blanc Bleu)

Not watching at the time, I come into the TV room and witness Price make this brilliant left pad save, and thought to myself, you know…this could be the “TSN turning point”.

Down 2-0 after the 1st.
A gazillion posts were hit from what I heard.
The Canadiens came back and played hard in the 3rd & OT.
Gionta got redemption in the shootout.
But Price stole the show in the SO, and blocked all 3.

Nice finish to a crappy starting hockey game.

BTW, were all Canadiens goals tipped? Another lesson from The Martin Era, you know, the Tips-Ins Count as Well chapter…nice to see all the posts and the tipped goals Scoring chances are coming.

Bad coaching decisions, individual efforts and a great game by Eller even if he got shortchanged by JM again. Goodbye Gomez, take your time coming back. Poor Gill, he looked horrible. He should never have played, what a stupid decision that was. Sigh!